• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.1227-1228
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• 2010

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.9 no.1
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• pp.545-550
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• 2023

A pretensioner is a safety device that protects occupants by pulling the seat belt in the event of a vehicle collision. However, since the pretensioner is driven by a explosive method, it is necessary to replace not only the gas generator but also all connecting parts including the manifold after an accident. Therefore, in this paper, we propose an elastic force-based pretensioner that can be used safely and semi-permanently. After analyzing the operating mechanism of the existing pretensioner from a thermodynamic/dynamic point of view, the spring stiffness that can be deployed within an appropriate operating time was determined by converting the gas explosion energy into elastic energy. In addition, the coil spring shape that satisfies the elastic stiffness was designed in consideration of the vehicle interior installation standard. Finally, the operating performance of the pretensioner driven by elastic force was verified through fabrication.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Precision Engineering Conference
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• 2008.06a
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• pp.221-222
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• 2008

• Journal of the Korean Society for Precision Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.89-94
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• 2010

The pretensioner is used to retract the belt webbing and tighten up any slack in the event of a crash. The retracting force of the pretensioner helps move the passenger into the optimum crash position in his or her seat. In this paper, the new concept of an operating mechanism of the pretensioning system is presented. The internal gear design program is developed using MATLAB. Two kinds of numerical analysis model are created. The first one, the rigid body dynamic model, is used to estimate the performance of several gear pairs. The initial performance of the new operating mechanism is analyzed and the best combination of the gear pairs is selected. The second one, the structural dynamic model, is used to calculate the deformation of the gear teeth. To decrease the deformation and interference of the teeth, the shape of the gear pairs is changed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.1-6
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• 2010

This study presents the practical design modification to improve the retracting performance of the pyro-typed high power pretensioner. 3 components of the pretensioner are redesigned and the usefulness of the design modification is verified by the experiment. During the pretensioning process, the gas blast generated from the gunpowder is transferred to the rack-pinion gear through the manifold. The rack-pinion gear is connected with the spool where the webbing is rolled up. According to the rotation of the pinion, the spool is turned and the webbing is winded. To help the gas blast flow well, the shape of the inner cross section of the manifold is changed. The spur gear design program is developed and used to find the best combination of the rack-pinion gear pair to increase the power transmission efficiency. The pinion guide is installed on the spool to prevent the vibration of the pinion. As a result of the experiment, the amount of the web retraction length is increased when every single design modification is applied. Therefore, the retracting performance of the pretensioner is considered to be improved if the presented design modifications are applied.

• Journal of IKEEE
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.223-226
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• 2018

Recently, various safety technologies have been extensively developed to protect occupants from accidents. This paper surveys various automotive occupant protection technologies such as antilock braking system, traction control system, electronic brake distribution, electronic stability control, autonomous emergency braking, airbag, seatbelt pretensioner, and active headrest. Their operation principles and implementations are also explained.

• Journal of Auto-vehicle Safety Association
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• v.3 no.2
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• pp.5-10
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• 2011

Under the full frontal crash event, seatbelt system is the most typical and primary restraint device that prevents the second impact between an occupant and vehicle interior parts by limiting the forward motion of an occupant in the vehicle occupant packaging space. Today's restraint systems typically include the three-point seat belt with the pretensioner and the load limiter. A pretensioner preemptively tightens the seat belts removing any slack between a passenger and belt webbing which leads to early restraint of a passenger. After that a load limiter controls level of belt load by releasing the belt webbing to reduce occupant injurys. In this study, load characteristics of load limiters are optimized by the computer simulation with a MADYMO model for a frontal impact against the rigid wall at 56kph and then we suggest performance requirements. We derived optimum load characteristic from the results using four vehicle simulation models represented by the vehicle. Based on the results, we suggest the performance from the results of the second optimization using the simulation considering the design and the standardization. Finally, the performance requirements is verified by the sled tests including the load limiter device for the full vehicle condition.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.148-156
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• 2003

Many car manufacturers have frequently adopted an aggressive inflator and a lower threshold speed for airbag deployment in order to meet an injury requirement for unbolted occupant at high speed crash test. Consequently, today's occupant safety restraint system has a weakness due to an airbag induced injury at low speed crash event. This paper proposes a new crash algorithm to improve the weakness by suppressing airbag deployment at low speed crash event in case of belted condition. The proposed algorithm consists of two major blocks-crash severity algorithm and deployment logic block. The first block decides crash severity with two levels by means of velocity and crash energy calculation from acceleration signal. The second block implemented by simple AND/OR logic combines the crash severity level and seat belt status information to generate firing commands for airbag and belt pretensioner. Furthermore, it can be extended to adopt additional sensor information from passenger presence detection sensor and safing sensor. A simulation using real crash data for a 1,800cc passenger vehicle has been conducted to verify the performance of proposed algorithm.

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.185-191
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• 2007

The new FMVSS 208, 213, 225 regulations include automatic suppression of airbags to prevent low-risk airbag deployment and the use of child seats with a rigid-bar anchor system. The regulations mean that children must sit in the rear seat, but do not include other specific safety measures for their protection. In the rear, restraint equipment consists of three-point shoulder/lap belts for the outside seats and a static two-point lap belt in the middle, with no additional devices such as pretensioners or load limiters; this is far from optimal for children. This study investigated injury rates using a 3-year-old-child dummy. ECE R44 sled tests used a booster, a speed of 48 km/h, and a 26- to 32-g rectangular deceleration pulse. While seated on a booster, the dummies were restrained by an adult shoulder/lap three-point belt. HIC_15 msec, Chest G and Nij were somewhat lower with an emergency locking retractor (ELR)+pretensioner+load limiter than with only an ELR or with ELR+pretensioner. However, the current seat-belt system results in injury rates that exceed the limit for OOP performance under the new FMVSS 208 regulations.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Military Science and Technology
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• v.16 no.6
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• pp.881-888
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• 2013

A basic study was performed to develop a mini gas generator by using a commercial automotive airbag inflater. The mini gas generator can be used for industrial and military application like a seat belt pretensioner. Some parameters were experimentally investigated to reduce the size of the inflater. Basic combustion tests were performed in the closed chamber and measured the pressure and the temperature behavior according to the design parameters. From the study, essential parameters were determined to design a mini gas generator.